VANCEBORO — Craven County’s most successful varsity boys’ basketball team over the past handful of years will have a new man roaming the sidelines next season.

West Craven hired Charles Harris, a former JV head coach and Varsity assistant at South Central, to fill the open position.

Harris steps in after his predecessor, Bryan Goehring, surprisingly and abruptly resigned.

The Eagles are coming off back-to-back trips to the Eastern Regionals and have a record of 89-22 over the past four seasons.

“I feel like I am walking into a great situation at West Craven,” Harris said. “These kids are hard workers and coach Goehring started a winning culture there and we are going to try and keep it going.”

West Craven went an undefeated 14-0 in the Coastal Conference last season en route to its second consecutive conference crown.

While stars Josh Cuthbertson and Demetres Abrams have moved on, the Eagles return talented players in Tyrone Brown, Alkeim Harley and Anthony Oates.

“I think I will instill a little more discipline and definitely some more presses and things defensively,” Harris said. “I want to win, and coming in here and doing well will help validate myself as the hire.”

Harris’s former squad in South Central, waged some classic battles with West Craven over the years, as he was an assistant under head coach Chris Cherry.

He said it will be somewhat of a unique feeling when they face off this season.

“That November game against South Central is going to be very interesting for me,” Harris said. “Coach Cherry has been nothing but very supportive of me and he told me I was ready for this job at West Craven when I asked him about applying for it.”

Harris has been an X’s and O’s guy at South Central and now will have complete responsibility over the Eagles’ program, which he said he is excited for.

“Now I have a lot more of a managerial and fund-raising role to do, in getting the kids the practice jerseys and new game jerseys that they deserve,” Harris said. “I think the managerial role being much larger will be the biggest challenge for me.”

While Josh Cuthbertsons and Demetres Abrams do not grow on trees, Harris is expecting his team to be tough and compete in every game.

Jordan Honeycutt can be reached at 252-635-5670 or at Jordan.Honeycutt@newbernsj.com. Follow Jordan on Twitter @JHONEYnbsj29